How much time do you spend on each story?

[K155]

Evening! I was wondering how long you guys spend on one story, as in writing it once the idea has formed.

I know the length of each piece differs widely but I guess I'm curious about other authors "process"

For me, I usually write them in 1-3 sittings, probably 2-3 hours for 2-4K words. Then I work on or do something different, and I won't go back to it for a few days. I edit it once, then leave for a few days and then edit it again.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

I'll often work on stories for a month or more. A few I've left to simmer for a year, going back to them when I can. Though, sometimes, I'll finish a story in one sitting, not including editing.

I think it just depends on how detailed the story is, and how much backstory I think it needs to feel complete.

 

[MrPixel]

Since I don't punch a clock in and out on each story, I have no way of telling. Most drag on for days if not weeks in the rewrites and edits. Plus it's really hard to estimate because I get involved in the story and lose track of time.

 

[Altissimus]

Once I've worked out what my story will be (which can itself take 2-3 weeks of idea brainstorming) and the story is demanding to be heard, it always gets written pretty quickly. In practical terms that means a 10-15k word story (my average) in 2-3 days - it would be faster but that's including doing my day job. I tend to not get much sleep for those few days...

I often edit as I go, then do a couple more full read-through edits before publishing.

I wrote 'Fashionista' in one day, partly because I was going off on holiday for a week and leaving the next day, and it had been a request and I wanted it done. So it is totally possible to get things out - for me, the big if on that statement is "if you've got you plan worked out" - beginning, couple of signposts in the middle, rough idea of how it might end. Then see what happens as I write.

 

[EmilyMiller]

My shortest stories are around 1,000 words. My longest (split across three episodes is 60,000 words). How long is a piece of string?

Em

 

[Euphony]

Not the specificity you asked for but every story is its own beast and sets its own timeline for being tamed.

The thrust of the piece greatly influences the timeline. Sometimes my need is to explore an aspect of the human condition and these types weigh heavier, require more research, and are most susceptible to periods of intense focus which must be followed by a period of time away or else the reflection period (prior to the aggressive edit) is mostly useless.

Other pieces are dashed off solely to escape that cycle. They aren't fluff (I almost wish I were better able to write it) but they tend towards more category expectation and/or curated tropes. I tend to set a calendar limit of about a week on these so I don't fall into the trap of mind wander turning them into more labor intensive think pieces as well.

Outlining I remove from a timer b/c creativity works on her own schedule so sometimes I'll build out the bulk in a feverish hours and others trickle in bits and necessary pieces over a year or more.

When I write the pieces I really want to write (so not the recovery/do something else fare) I try to give myself as fully as I can which isn't helped by clock watching.

It's always a balancing act, the over pursuit of perfection be it a word, a character personality profile, bending theme to make it as universal as possible.

"Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" has residence in my brain and I do everything I can to live it. But sometimes, some characters (or some muses) won't give the whole of themselves without similar sacrifice on my part. And god help me do I love those sorts of toxic relationships the most. You feel the peak of being alive right before they inevitably kill you.

Fair trade.

 

[lovecraft68]

As long as it takes.

 

[AchtungNight]

As much as is necessary. It depends on the story. Sometimes I need only a few brief hours (Will Trent: Wake Up Angie took only a little over three hours to write and edit). Meanwhile it took me nearly a month to research and finalize The Rendezvous (not easy to femslash four women with anger issues).

Passion 5 took several months to complete because I had to break off to resolve various plot holes I was creating as I wrote the main story and calm myself down. Rekindled, Debrief, and Running Down a Dream all came about as “calm down” stories for Passion 5. Passion 4 was also a necessary prequel.

The biggest break needed came when I needed to neutralize a major villain whom I did not want to play a role in Passion 5 by writing Counseling. I was originally planning to have my heroine train with Chuck Norris and hospitalize the villain after said villain messed with her friends and family, but I ended up using a more appropriate solution for the situation. You can read the stories if you’re interested. I turned off so many of my usual limiters with Counseling that I’m still surprised it got posted here and it gets high praise from those who reviewed it. It took me about two weeks. Various new bits of celebrity gossip I kept wanting to include bogged me down (villain is a gossip monger with tabloid reporters as pawns and heroine has to counsel her victims).

I also have to break off from my writing a lot to settle other issues, live my life, find proper inspiration, deal with burnout. Asperger’s and bipolar disorder are difficult. And of course I have to go over everything with a beta reader repeatedly before I submit, sometimes more than one beta reader. My God of War story took about two extra months thx to beta reading. Writing can be a mess.

 

[Voboy]

I've only recently begun noting dates: when I get the idea, when I start writing, and when I finish. I reckon I do most of my stories in [a very unscientifically guessed] about 4k words per day. So if most are around 20k words, figure five writing days.

But that is seldom done in five straight days unless the muse is really, really kickin'. More often, I get a day here, a day there. My record is around 26 hours, straight through, for a full 15k-word story, from concept to SUBMIT button. I got the idea in the shower one morning and submitted it by lunchtime the following day. But that was a concerted attempt to get past a block.

 

[SimonDoom]

Somewhere between several hours and several years.

 

[alohadave]

As long as it takes.

Some short ones a couple days. Others are longer. My current main WIP is probably going take a minimum of a month, and if it takes three months I won't be surprised.

 

[Fatdog25]

To paraphrase everybody else, it takes as long as my muse says it will take.

I've written one story in less than ten days from inception to submission, which was my Nude Day 2023 submission. All my other published ones have taken at least three weeks. Some unfinished ones are at the three month mark.

Like a lot of writers, I don't work on one from start to finish. I'll get to a point in a story where I run out of steam and have to let it simmer while I work on something else until my muse puts her foot in my ass to finish it.

I have a love/hate relationship with Jan (my muse) because of this.

 

[AWhoopsieDaisy]

Uhhhhhhhhhh I have no concept of time and never thought about it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[ElectricBlue]

Setting aside the short 750 worders (which I can get written in an hour or two), my shortest "elapsed time" - to the extent that I watched time - was about twelve hours over I think three days, for an 8000 word story. That one wrote itself very quickly.

The longest steady period was ten months for my 104k Arthurian novel, during which time I wrote only two side projects - the above mentioned piece being one or them.

Generally speaking, my output is around 10k per month, which knocks down to about 500 words a day, thereabouts. But I can go days without writing, if I'm off doing something else.

 

[NotWise]

Most of my early stories took a few hours of actual writing--a few days in elapsed time. My goals, my standards, and my motivation changed over time. My more recent stories typically take a couple months. My record for a single story with no sidetracks is about six months (A Little Salty, a Little Bit Dirty).

I use the "Created" date in my word processor's "Properties" page to check how long it's taken.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

A few hours plus an edit a few days later for my shortest ones. Usually a couple days of frenzy, then a day or two of edit, but then there's the ones which come piece by piece, and get writing and editing for months on end.

20 years is the longest...

 

[Athalia]

Some of my stories pretty much wrote themselves, in an hour session and then another hour in edit mode.

Others needed more time. I'd write a few pages, and then wait for more inspiration before resuming work. That wait could be overnight or weeks in coming. But I've never been one to routinely produce writing, and particularly erotic writing. It's not my day job, so I don't worry too much about it.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

I think a wrote a story for a contest here in a single day, and another in a week, everyday, finished about an hour before deadline, rejected, fixed with minutes to spare. I might spend days to months writing something while spending hours a day, or writing throughout a day on it. I might stare at it for ten minutes and add a sentence, then move on. A few things took me a year to write. I have shit over ten years old I haven't finished, and layouts a year plus old(like the LW story I say I'm gonna write) and haven't written yet. This is a loaded question, as you can see. There's no paycheck making time the essence here. If it were, I'd be fired.

 

[Rob_Royale]

No way to tell really. I range from three to six weeks between submissions but I'm dancing with multiple partners during that time. I'm a real slut when it comes to stories.

 

[Whanmore]

Feels like at least a month on every story. After my editors read it and I get it back i feel like its been quite a while.

 

[bumpercars]

For me the range is a week (if I am energized, determined, and have the writing time) to a month or two, with one month being the most common.

I could push myself and write faster, but I think I'd get burned out if I did. I'd rather let my stories pull me instead.

 

[KeithD]

Between four and six hours, I would estimate.

 

[HeyAll]

These days it takes me longer because I try to go for more unique plots. I've written all the basic ideas years ago, no fun in repeating myself.

Recently I did a simple story that was about 5,000 words and it took me about a week. I multi-task though, I was editing another story at the time also.

One thing I've learned is that there's no correlation between time spent on a story and how it's recieved. Some stories I've spent months (not consecutively) working on a story and it's not that popular. Other times I've made a story quick and it became super popular.

 

[K155]

Feels like at least a month on every story. After my editors read it and I get it back i feel like its been quite a while.

Do you employ paid editors or do you have an understanding with some other authors?

 

[MelissaBaby]

I can knock them out pretty quickly if need be, like when I procrastinate on contest/challenge entries until about three days before the deadline. But generally, I write long stories fairly slowly.

And here's a tip if you want to write realistic period pieces. You're going to burn up a lot of time finding out what most people watched on TV on Saturday nights in 1957 or when they stopped making Packards or started selling Coke in cans.